yBRARV OF 



CONGRESS 



'014432 836 A 



ADDRESS 

Delivered by 

Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford 

HISTORIAN-GENERAL 

United Daughters of the 
Confederacy 



NEW WILLARD HOTEL 

WASHINGTON, D. G 

Thursday, Nov. 19th., 1912 






am 



THE MCGREGOR CO., PRINTERS, ATHENS, GA. 



ADDRESS 



I fear there will come to you a keen disappoiutmeut to-uiglit, 
because you will not have a carefully prepared historical ad- 
dress; nor will you have those ehanning papers, charmingly 
read, by women of local talent, as has been the custom of my 
predecessor, Mrs. Enders Robinson, of Virginia, to have pre- 
sented to you. But, ilrs. White, our President-General, as well 
as myself, your Historian-General, felt that this opportunity 
must not be lost — an opportunity to give some practical illustra- 
tions and needed advice regarding the collection and preserva- 
tion of the history pertaining to the South, particularly that 
history relating to the War Between the States. 

When at Richmond last year you elected me your Historian- 
General, the highest honor in >our power to bestow, I honestly 
confess my impulse was to refuse, but the temptation was too 
great. I felt I would like to accept this honor for one year, and 
that possibly I could get others to do what I could not do 
myself. 

On the way home I prepared an Open Letter. That letter 
was ready for the printer as soon as I reached Athens. There 
was a little delay, because our President-General had to look 
into the financial end of the matter, and there was still another 
delay in order that our Corresponding Secretary-General and our 
Recording Secretary-General might put me in touch with the 
historians, because the Minutes of the Little Rock Convention 
did not contain all of the Chapter historians' names. I would 
like for tlie State Presidents to take note of this — all historians' 
names should be in the Minutes of every Convention. 

As soon as possible that Open Letter was sent to every state 
historian, with copies sufficient for every one of the chapter 
historians in that Division. I also sent copies of it to the State 
presidents and to mnny of the former presidents and officers of 
the r. D. C, whose audresses I had been able to secure. 

There came beautiful letters of commendation to your His- 
torii'.i-General. She really was flattered, and thought wonderful 
things were going to come to pass. You may imagine, then. 



the keen disappointment when the summing up of the year's 
work came and she felt that your Historian-General had been 
a failure. 

Now I know that you would much prefer that I should throw 
beautiful bouquets tonight and tell you of the things that you 
have done well. But I am not here to throw beautiful bouquets. 
I am here to plead with you to do more earnest work in the col- 
lection and in the preservation of this history of our dear South- 
land. You do not realize. Daughters of the Confederacy, our 
wonderful power. 

Do you know, that there are 22 State Divisions, and 11 States 
that have not yet organized into Divisions? That means 1,136 
historians, not counting your state historians, nor your Historian- 
General, besides many assistant historians, with chapter mem- 
bership of nearly 80,000 women, without the children of the 
Confederacy, who are becoming now a great host. Think of the 
possibilities ! 

If we can realize the responsibility devolving upon us and 
will do our full duty, why the whole world would soon know 
the things for which the South stands. 

I ask you earnestly to rally to the Historian-General, whoever 
she may be, and rally to all that history represents in our or- 
gr.nization, and do the very best that in you lies. 

I am sorry that I was not called on this morning for my 
report. There are many details in that I think would have 
gratified you, and yet there are some things that perhaps would 
have mortified some of you. I think it is well sometimes to 
feel a bit mortified, for it often makes us realize our weakness 
and makes us resolve to do better. 

You wonder where our weakness is? I think I can guess at 
it. Do you make in your chapter the historical program the 
feature of your meeting? If you do not, then you have pushed 
the historical part of your work into the background. Do you 
encourage your historian by asking her to bring a paper, care- 
fully prepared, for each one of the meetings, whether it is read 
or not? If you do. there would be twelve well-prepared papers 
during the year, which is far better than some of you have re- 
ported. You can do better than that, if you would report an 
average of one paper from each member of your chapter a year. 
Try that and watch the result. 



Then do you make it a point that your state historian attends 
the V. D. C. Convention ? If you do not, she misses the inspira- 
tion that conies from meeting other historians. Do you make it 
a point that your chapter historian attends your State Conven- 
tion ? If not, she will lose that inspiration that comes from the 
close touch with other chapter historians, and this does a world 
of good. 

If only you will take my advice, and try next year to see 
that your historians are at these conventions, your historical 
work will mean a great deal more than it has ever done before. 

Your historian is possibly the busiest woman in your chapter, 
and you know that this is true, for we always select the busy 
woman to do the most important work. Usually your historian 
is a wage earner, or a literary woman, and often literary people 
have little time at their disposal. Sometime it happens that you 
wish to honor some one of your members with an office, and 
the office of historian is the only one left; you never stop to 
consider the fitness but bestow the honor. Do you wonder that 
your work is not well done? Your historian should be the best 
informed Avoman in your chapter, whether she be a wage earner, 
a literary woman, or one you wish to honor. She should have 
the sympathy and cooperation of every member of the chapter 
and then be given money to carry on her historical work. Paper 
cannot be picked up without price. One cannot write history 
on the backs of leaves. Stamps for correspondence cost money. 
You must think of these things if you wish your work to be a 
success. 

Now, I am going to draw comparisons, and comparisons are 
odious. I am conscious that I shall not make myself popular 
with you, because some of you will think that I should praise 
you. too ; but I must candidly tell you that there are some 
Divisions that are doing fine historical work and many that are 
not, and I want here, in the presence of all of our Daughters, 
to commend those Divisions especially whose work has been 
well done. 

Listen to me very carefully- and do not misrepresent me. 
The responsibility of this work is not upon the Historian-Gen- 
eral, State historians, nor the chapter historians alone ; the 
responsibility is upon the State presidents, the presidents of 
every chapter and upon the individual members of each chapter 



as well. Not one can say "I am free." We are all guilty, and 
if the historical work does not measure up to the full require- 
ments each Daughter of the Confederacy should be blamed. 

There is no doubt that this year Texas has done the best 
work of all of the Divisions in the U. D. C. (Applause). Mis- 
sissippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas have also done good work. 
Tennessee has always done good work along historical lines — 
but then you know Tennessee has The Confederate Veteran and 
Mr. Cunningham back of her. Georgia did not enter the contest 
this year for good reasons. 

I wondered where the power of Texas came in. I am going 
to confide to you that I had expected ^Mississippi to walk oft* 
with the Banner offered by Mrs. Raines, because I knew of the 
wonderful work done by Mrs. S. E. Rose of the Mississippi 
Division when she was state historian. (Applause). I knew 
that Mississippi always measures up well in historical work, but 
Mississippi has let Texas excel her this year for her historian, I 
learn, was sick, and it is but fair to say this. Mrs. Barrett 
with Texas' report undoubtedly leads all the divisions. So much 
now for that beautiful bouquet to Texas. 

AVhat is the secret of Texas' great achievement? I will tell 
you some of the things. Her interest in all that pertains to 
history ; her willingness to seize suggestions and share them with 
others; her ability to pay out money in order to give informa- 
tion to others. We are too slow to receive suggestions and act 
upon them. 

Let me go back in memory to the Richmond Convention, in 
1899, when ]\Iiss Kate Mason Rowland, of Virginia, offered a 
set of resolutions which should have moved us to action. How 
well I remember those resolutions: I was yomig in the work. 
Miss Mason said that one of the things that we, as Daughters 
of the Confederacy, must not do was to call the War Between 
the States the Civil War. That if we yielded that point, we 
yielded the very thing that we contended for — state sovereignty. 
I did not pay much attention to her then, but Texas did. It 
has not made an impression upcMi many of you, for I daily hear 
some of you speak of it as a civil war — the women from Texas 
do not call it a civil war. 

Again, at the Convention in ]\Iontgomery, Ala., 1900, ]Miss 
Dunovant of Texas stood upon that platform and in a wonderful 



way reiterated what IMiss Mason had said, and rang out the 
changes upon our neglecting to study and to write the history 
of the South. She begged us not to call the U. D. C. a National 
body, and proved to us conclusively that the United States had 
never been a nation, but was a federative system of free, sov- 
reign and independent States. Many of us did not catch her 
meaning, for today I hear so many speak of our organization 
as a National body. 

IMiss Dunovant went back to Texas. I remember that I was 
put on an historical committee with her. There were others 
on that committee, I forget just who they were, and I am not 
going to answer for any but myself — I know I did no work. IMiss 
Dunovant, I think, did all of the work. She sent out some of 
the most remarkable historical programs, and if the chapters had 
rallied to her then, and had followed her lead, we would not 
now be twelve years behind the times. (Applause). Texas has 
always had good historians (Applause). But I believe that IMrs. 
Chas. G. Barrett of Huntsville, who is now the State historian 
of Texas, is going to lead the pace for us all. (Applause). We 
cannot all follow her in one respect. I am afraid. I know Geor- 
gia cannot, when it comes to spending money. The sum of 
$375.00 was expended on the historical programs and work done 
in Texas last year. 

Now I am going to be candid and honest witli you. 1 think 
IMrs. Barrett paid that amount herself, and not the Texas 
Division. So we need not feel so very bad about it. Thei-e are 
not many state historians who are as fortunate as Mrs. Barrett 
and can spend money in that way. But that is one of the 
secrets of that magnificent work. Her programs are real works 
of art, and she does not hesitate to spend money when it is 
necessary to make the historical work a success, for she is so 
devoted to the cause of the Soutli. 

Texas is fortimate, too, in having another eutiiusiast in history 
— I mean IMrs. Mollie McGill Rosenberg, "Our Flag Lady," I 
call her, for she never hesitates to use her money when she thinks 
it is needed to carry on historical work. Let us not envy Texas, 
but rejoice with her in her good fortune. However, we all can do 
better than we have done in the past whether we have money to 
spend or not. Let us stand back of our historians hereafter, and 
see that they have encouragement to carry on their work sue- 



cessfully, and thus make our historical department what it 
should be in the future. 

So much then for the practical part of our work. 

There comes to me a memory — the memory of our Dr. J. B. 
Lamar Curry, and what he said years ago, that history as it is 
now written is most unjust to the South, and history, if accept- 
ed as it is written, will consign the South to infamy. 

Who is responsible for the South 's unwritten history ? Surely 
we cannot blame the northern historian. His duty is and was 
to record the facts as they are given to him ; and if we of the 
South have not given him these facts, how can we hold the 
historian of the North responsible? (Applause). The fault we 
find with the northern historian, (of course there are a few 
exceptions.) is not so much what he has said against us as what 
he has omitted to say. (Applause). 

Unless we, Daughters of the Confederacy, will look into this 
matter and see where the trouble lies we will still have this 
history untrue to us. As long as the Book Trust controls our 
Boards of Education and northern text-books continue to be 
used in southern schools to the exclusion of southern text-books, 
we will realize that the history of the South will never be known 
to the coming generations. (Applause). 

We cannot in the South compete with tlie North in publishing 
houses. Therefore, Ave cannot sell books at as small a cost as 
they can be sold by northern publishers. This throws the re- 
sponsibility upon the moneyed men of the South, who have not 
thought it worth while to spend their means in having publishing 
houses for southern text-books so that we can compete in prices 
with northern text-books. We must not blame the manufacturer 
of books at the North because he is pushing his interests in the 
matter of his books. You would do it and I would do it. 

No. Daughters of the Confederacy, too long have Ave been in- 
different to this matter. Only Avithin the last fifteen or twenty 
years have we really aAvakened to the fact that our history has 
not been written. The institutions of the South, especially the 
institution of slavery, about Avhich clustered a civilization unique 
in the annals of history, have never been justly presented from 
the southern point of view. Thomas Nelson Page, more than any 
other one Avriter, has thrown side-lights upon this institution 



which have revolutionized the thought of the world. And we 
are so greatly indebted to him! 

Daughters, are the books of Thomas Nelson Page in your 
libraries, especially his ''Old South"? Are those books given 
to your children to read? Are your children encouraged to 
read those books? If not, they should be. You cannot expect 
the North, and you cannot expect other nations to know by 
intuition the greatness of the South. Ah ! how often the vision 
comes before me of the passing years, and I see our inertness 
and indifference and I see more — the future years filled with 
keen regret and self-reproach. 

I am here tonight. Daughters, yes, daughters of Confederate 
heroes, to plead with you, to urge you to a more aggressive and 
progressive campaign in collecting and preserving this history. 
We have now living amongst us some who lived during the old 
plantation days — some who can now tell us from their own ex- 
periences what that institution of slavery was, and what it meant 
to them and to the negroes under their control. In those days we 
never thought of calling them slaves. That is a word that crept in 
with the abolition crusade. They were our people, our negroes, 
part of our very homes. There are men and women still living 
who know th&se facts and who can give them to us, but they 
are fast passing awa}', just as are the men and women who lived 
during the War Between the States. Are we getting from these 
men and women the facts which only they can give us, or are we 
indifferent and not willing to take time and not willing to take 
the trouble to get this information? Let me say tonight that 
if we still ■ continue to let the years pass by, without giving 
attention to this subject, the history of this period will ever 
be unwritten. 

Now you say, "What can we do?" AVhat can we do? Any- 
thing in the world we wish to do. If there is a power tlmt is 
placed in any hands, it is the power that is placed in the hands 
of the southern woman in her home. (Applause). That power 
is great enough to direct legislative bodies — and that, too, with- 
out demanding the ballot. (Applause). As j'ou are, so is your 
child, and as you think, so will your husband think, (Laughter 
and applause) that is, if you are the right kind of mother and 
wife and hold the confidence and love of your husband and 
children. Your children are to be the future leaders of this 



land. Are you training these children yourself or are you 
relegating that power to some one else? Something is radically 
wrong with the education of the present day. We are training 
men and women who are not loyal to the truth of history, who 
are not standing for law and order, and who are weak enough to 
be bought by the Book Trust. (Applause). Let us do quickly 
what we can to right it. 

You may say, "Tell us the qualifications for a U. D. C. his- 
torian, and we will get to work." 
^ I would say the first qualification for any historian is 
truthfulness. History is truth, and you must truthfully give the 
facts. Be as careful to give the true history of the side against 
us as to give our own side, then we can demand from the north- 
vern historian that he shall do the same. 

The historian must never be partial — no one-.«?ided view of 
any q.u'-.tion is ever history. You realize that in our U. D. C. 
histo./ there are two sides to many questions. Time has not 
yet settled many of these points. What we must do as historians 
is to carefully record the facts on both sides. 

There came to me in the preparation of my volumes of history 
for our work such questions as these : Who was the first to pro- 
pose ]\[(>morial Day? There are two sides to that question. 
I may think I know, but my opinion should not go down as un- 
disputed history. The evidence as held by both parties must 
be recorded for the future historian. So with the question. 
Who first suggested the United Daughters of the Confederacy / 
The evidence as held by both sides must be placed side by side. 
Where was the Last Cabinet Meeting of the Confederacy held ? 
Three States are claiming that honor. , Where was the last battle 
of the War Between the States fought? Two places are claim- 
ing that. You heard today North Carolina and Alabama claim- 
ing the origin of the Confederate fiag. There may be facts on 
both sides of these questions which an impartial historian can 
decide in future years better than we now can, so I beg you to 
be careful and don't let us think we know it all. 

Then the historian must be very patient. The material that 
we are seeking is scattered far and wide. The veterans are very 
slow to glorify themselves, and you must tactfully draw from 
them the things you wish to know. Oh, great patience is re- 
quired on tlic ]Kirt of the historian! 

10 



Then you must be hold and fearless, daring to tell the truth 
even if adverse criticism comes to you for doing it. But while 
bold and fearless be tactful, be broad and be liberal-minded. 

An historian should have with her the elements of the phil- 
osopher. It must need be that you are required to deal with 
the social, the economic and the political questions of the day, 
and you must be prepared to discuss them without passion. You 
must learn to hold yourself within yourself in discussing all 
questions of that kind. 

You musfhave enthusiasm, also — that enthusiasm which will 
carry all with you ; but, here again your enthusiasm must be 
tempered with good will and with fairness. Then you must be 
a patriot — because the Confederate soldier was the highest type 
of a patriot, (Applause) and when you are writing of him you 
must know what patriotism means. 

And you must be loyal to truth — not with regard to Confed- 
erate history only, but loyal to the truth of all history. (Ap- 
plause). 

What is history? I would say that it is not dates chronologi- 
cally arranged, nor is it gossip about politics, nor is it descrip- 
tions of battles only. All of these things may enter into history, 
but I think history centers around some human event, some 
social movement. And to write histoiy one must know human 
nature. Not only must we know the event, but we must know 
what caused it and all the circumstances attending it, and the 
motives of all the people connected with it. 

The field of history is as broad as human life ; the qualities of 
history should be truth and wisdom; the aim of history should be 
to find the truth; the methods of the historian should be to 
pursue truth and weigh it, then publish it after it is w^eighed. 
In a word, if you ask me "What is history?" I would answer, 
"It is the getting truth." The sources of history are oral or 
written. We have. Daughters, an opportunity today to get much 
of our history from oral testimony. Shall we neglect to do the 
thing which in a few years we cannot do? 

Do you Imow, that the South has had a great part in the 
building of the nation? If you examine those text-books your 
children are studying you would never think it. (Laughter). 
And from them they will never discover it. Our institutions 
are very often unjustly— I should not have said unjustly, for 

11 



we ourselves have never put them justly before the world — but 
as history stands now it is unjust to the institutions of the 
South. 

Do you know, that in the books your children are studying 
and reading the institution of slavery is said to have weakened 
the mental faculties of the men and women of the South, making 
them lazy and inert? (Laughter). But history unjustly as 
it has been written will by the lives of these men disprove that 
very statement. 

Not only were we the first permanent colony that came to 
these shores, but more than that for it is stated upon g6od 
authority that one of our Jamesto^^'n colony was instrumental 
in inducing the Pilgrim Fathers to come to Plymouth Rock, 
and yet you and your children know all about that Plymouth 
Rock colony, and can answer without a moment's hesitation 
that it was the ]\Iayflower that brought over the Pilgrim Fathers 
to this country, and few can give the names of the Good Speed, 
the Discovery, and the Susan Constant, the three vessels that 
brought the members of the Jamestown colony first to these 
shores. (Laughter). 

Why ? I will tell you why. The North has thought it wortli 
while to preserve its history carefullj', and we have not thought 
it worth while to have our history written. In other words your 
children are studying what the North says and not what the 
South should say. 

Do you know, that most of the men who took part — a promi- 
nent part — in the building of the nation were the slaveholders 
that have been so maligned? When they were looking for a 
president of the first Continental Congress why did they go to 
Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, a slave-holder, to be at the head 
of that body? (Applause). And why, when a resolution had to 
be drawn that these colonies must be free and independent 
states, did Richard Henry Lee, another slaveholder have to 
write it? (Applause). Why was it when they were seeking 
for some one to write the Declaration of Independence, they 
chose Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder? (Applause). The British 
Encyclopaedia, which is so unjust to the South, says it was be- 
cause he was a ready writer. Compliment No. 1 that this ency- 
clopasdia, found in every Southern library, has paid to the South. 

Did not our George JMason of Virginia, give the first Declara- 

12 



tion of Rights ever passed on this continent? Then when they 
were looking for a commander-in-chief of the Army, did they 
not choose another slaveholder, George Washington? (Ap- 
plause). And when they were looking for a commander-in-chief 
of the Navy, was it not our James Nicholson of Virginia? And 
was it not John Marshall's .pen that welded the states into a 
union? And when they were looking for men to write a paper 
stronger than the Articles of the Confederation, did not they 
first choose our James Madison to write it — that is our Consti- 
tution before amended since the war? And when they 
needed Chief Justices for the government, did not our Marshall 
of Virginia, and Taney of Maryland, for over sixty years hold 
that office? And wasn't it a southern man that was made the 
first President of the United States ? AVas it not Thomas Jeffer- 
son that added the Louisiana Purchase — millions of miles of 
territory — to the United States; and was it not James K. Polk 
of Tennessee, that added the Pacific slope? Did not Virginia 
give to the United States, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and a part 
of Minnesota? There were 15 President before 1860 and 11 of 
them were southern men. Five of these were reelected and 
every one from the South. It cannot be denied that Southern 
men were foremost in the War of 1812, and you know it took 
a Southern man, Francis Scott Key of ^Maryland, to write our 
National anthem — The Star Spangled Banner. 

Did it not take two southern men, Taylor and Scott, to gain 
Mexico, and were not the men most prominent in that campaign 
from the South — Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, Robert E. Lee, 
Thomas J. Jackson, our Stonewall, Jos. E. Johnston, and A. P. 
Hill of Virginia, Henry R. Jackson and Josiah Tatnall of Geor- 
gia, Beauregard of Louisiana, Braxton Bragg of North Carolina, 
Butler and ]May of Maryland, and others too numerous to men- 
tion? Was it not James Monroe who bought Florida for the 
U. S.. and it has been his IMonroe Doctrine, abuse it as you may 
now, that has kept our America for Americans so long. And 
was not Sam Houston the hero of Texas, and was it not Andrew 
Lewis of Virginia, and Georgia Rogers Clarke of Kentucky, 
who opened up the Yellowstone and the great West ? (Applause). 

No, we do not begin to know what part the South had in the 
building of the nation — not only in one direction but in many. 

Let us turn to the inventors. Was it not our Cyrus .McCor- 

13 



mick of Virginia that invented the reaping machine which revo- 
lutionized harvesting? 

Was it not our James Gatling of North Carolina that invented 
the gatling gun? Was it not our Francis Goulding of Georgia 
that invented the sewing machine? But history don't tell you 
so. (Laughter). It says Howe and Thirmonnier did it. Was it 
not our William Longstreet of Georgia that first suggested the 
application of steam as a motive power? History will not tell 
you that either, but will say that Fulton did it. Was it not 
W^tkins of Georgia who invented the cotton gin? You never 
heard of him before, did you? History tells you Eli Whitney 
invented the cotton gin. The first passenger railroad in the 
world was in South Carolina, and the first steamboat that ever 
crossed the Atlantic ocean went from Savannah. Georgia. You 
don't find that in northern histories, do you? Wasn't Paul 
Morphey the greatest chess player in the world? (Laughter). 
And wasn't Sidney' Lanier the finest flute player ever known? 
Cyrus Field could not have made his cable a possibility without 
our Matthew Maury to devise the plans. There never was an 
ornithologist like our Audubon of Louisiana. And I do not 
believe they could have tunnelled imder the Hudson without 
our William McAdoo of Marietta, Ga. (Laughter). Then, again, 
when they Avanted a leader of the Union forces in 1861 why did 
they go to our Robert E. Lee? And when he refused, did they 
not choose Winfield Scott, another southern man ? 

Then when we come to science and medicine, what physician 
has done more to alleviate the sufferings of the world than our 
Dr. Crawford W. Long of Georgia? (Applause). He was with- 
out doubt the discoverer of anesthesia, and I don't believe you 
know all that means to you, or you would have applauded louder, 
and you would not allow others to try to take the honor from 
him, and you would have erected a monument to him long ago. 
Was it not our Sims of South Carolina who first suggested sur- 
gery in hospital service? 

Then let us come to the question of education. If there is a 
thing that the South has smarted under in the false way that 
history has been written, it is in regard to illiteracy in the South, 
and I want to open your eyes a little bit along this line, and 
you of the South need an opening of the eyes as well as the 

14 



people of the North. "We do not ourselves know all that the 
South may claim. 

Do you know, that "William and Mary College at "Williams- 
burg, "Va., was the first university in the United States? Now, 
mind you, I did not say college, for I have no desire to take from 
Harvard her glory. And did you know that William and ]Mary 
was the first to receive a charter from the crown; the first to 
have a school of modern languages ; the first to have a school of 
history; the first to use the honor system? And do you know, 
that the Georgia University, Athens, Ga., was the first State 
University in the U. S.? Besides this, do you know that the 
Wesleyan College at Macon, Ga., was the first chartered college 
for women in the ivorld, and that it was a Georgia woman who 
received the first diploma ever issued? 

Do you know that in 1673 Mosely of N. C, was establishing 
public libraries in his state, and Byrd of "Westover as early as 
1676 gave 39 free libraries in his state, "V^irginia — a veritable 
Carnegie, and had no strings tied to them, either. (Laughter 
and applause). "Why, South Carolina was having free schools 
as early as 1710, and I think Virginia had them before this. 
What nonsense to say that the South was behind the North in 
literary taste and culture in the days of the South of Yesterday ! 
The first book written in America was in "Virginia, and the first 
book printed in America was in Virginia. The libraries in the 
Old South contained the best books then published, and the best 
magazines in this country and in England were on the library 
tables. And as to the matter of illiteracy, since the War, just 
let me put this thought in your mind: It was Savannah, Ga., 
in the AVorld's Almanac of 1910 or 1911, I forget which that 
was said to have had the lowest percent of illiteracy in the U. S., 
and remember, too, that Georgia's population is about half 
negroes. 

Again, you cannot put a two cent stamp on a letter that a 
southern man and a slaveholder, George Washington, does not 
speak to you; and you cannot handle our silver currency that 
another southern man and a slaveholder, Thomas Jefferson, does 
not speak. 

No, we do not ourselves know our own greatness, and how can 
we expect others to know it? If time permitted I could go, on 
and on, giving one thing after another that would astound you ; 

15 



but this much I will say, that no section of the land can show- 
greater statesmen, abler jurists, braver soldiers, purer patriots, 
more eminent men of letters, more skilled physicians and in- 
ventors, truer and holier divines, finer orators, and more men 
who have been foremost in all departments of life than our own 
South. (Applause). And the time has fully come, and all 
sections of the country seem to have realized that the time has 
come, for the South to come into her own. (Applause). 

Thank God that Gov. Woodrow Wilson has been elected Presi- 
dent of the United States (Applause) — a man who stands for 
all that the South stands for ; a man Avho is above being bought ; 
a man who will be equally just to the North as to the South. 
(Applause). And we of the South must stand back of him and 
show implicit confidence in all that he does and says. We must 
be slow to join in any adverse criticism, and let him know that 
we believe that he is going to do the very best thing in the very 
best way. (Applause). Georgia feels very proud that for the 
first time in historj^ the Lady of the White House will be a 
Georgia daughter. (Applause). 

Now, just as the Confederate soldier returned after the war 
and became a peaceful citizen, because he was a hero, and could 
rise above the humiliation of surrender, and from a hero of war 
become a hero of peace, so should we, daughters of these Con- 
federate soldiers, emulate their example. The Confederate sol- 
dier fought with honor, surrendered with honor, and abided the 
issue with honor. After the war he came back into the Union 
equal with all Union men. He is as loyal to the flag today as 
other Union men. It is true, he had to fight his way with shack- 
led hands during that awful reconstruction period; but wise 
men of the North understand why it was a necessity then. He 
was compelled to establish the political supremacy of the white 
man in the South. (Applause). So, too, the Ku Klux Klan was 
a necessity at that time, and there can come no reproach to 
the men of the South for resorting to that expedient. 

Loyalty to the fiag was shown by the South in the Spanish- 
American W^ar. ]\Iore soldiers in proportion to the population 
went from southern states than from northern states. And was 
not our Joe Wheeler of Alabama ^'the backbone of the Santiago 
campaign?" And was it not said of our Hobson of Alabama 
that he performed the most wonderful feat ever performed in 

16 



naval history? And did not Willard of ^laryland plant the 
first flag in Cuba? And was it not Tom Brumby of Georgia 
that raised the first flag at Manilla? And did not Anderson of 
Virginia fire the first salute at El Caney? And so in many ways 
other southern heroes have shown their loyalty to the flag. 

But, does loyalty to the flag that floats above us prevent our 
loyalty to the Confederate flag? Not at all. That is the em- 
blem of the South 's patriotism. Four years it waved its pre- 
cious folds above a righteous cause, and when we furled it, it 
was because we were overpowered and not because we were con- 
quered. (Applause). Silently and reverently we laid that flag 
away, that our children and children's children coming after us 
might revere it; it will teach to them the principles for which 
our fathers fought — states' rights and constitutional liberty. 

Every Confederate State had a share in the War Between 
the States. Some states suffered more than others. Dear old 
Virginia was the battle ground. Ah! how Virginia suffered. 
Over five hundred battles were fought on Virginia's soil. But 
I believe North Carolina holds the palm when it comes to sacri- 
fice. (Applause). One-fourth of all the Confederate soldiers 
that were killed during the War Between the States were North 
Carolinians; one-fourth of all who were wounded were North 
Carolinians ; one-third of all that died from disease were North 
Carolinians ; and that 26th Regiment of North Carolina sustain- 
ed the heaviest loss ever sustained by any regiment during the 
w'ar on either side. Eight hundred fell in Pickett's charge, 
either killed or wounded, and only eighty were left to tell the 
tale. This shows how the old North State stands for bravery. 

You would think from this, wouldn't you, that I am a North 
Carolinian? I am not, but a Georgian. (Applause). I am 
Georgia born and Georgia bred, of parents Georgia born and 
bred — Georgian from the crown of my head to the soles of my 
feet, and loyal enough to old Georgia to wear tonight a velvet 
dress woven on a Georgia loom at Griffin. (Applause). But 
Georgia has so many things of which to boast she can well afford 
to be magnanimous to other states. 

The War Between the States was a war of secession and co- 
ercion. It really came about by a different interpretation of the 
Constitution. The South interpreted it to mean State sovereign- 
ty. The thirteen states ratified that constitution. Why was it 

17 



ratified by them at that time if they were unwilling to abide by 
it in later years? (Applause). 

A very significant thing happened last year. The son of 
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles E. Stowe, gave a talk before 
the Fisk University at Nashville, Tenu., the largest college for 
negroes in the South, in which he said, "It is evident that there 
was a rebellion, but the North were the rebels, not the South. 
(Applause). The South stood for state rights and slavery, both 
of which were distinctly entrenched within the constitution." 
And we have had no harsher critic of the South than Prof. 
Goldwin Smith, and he said that you cannot accuse the southern 
leaders of being rebels for "secession is not rebellion." 

For seventy-three years the South stood back of this constitu- 
tion to protect her rights and those rights were protected; but 
when Abraham Lincoln was elected on an anti-slavery platform, 
without an electoral vote from the South, war was inevitable. 
We felt that if one state's right was interfered with, other 
states' rights would be. I have heard even some southern people 
say that the war was fought to keep our slaves. What gross 
ignorance! Only one-third of the men in the Confederate army 
ever owned a slave. Gen. Lee freed his slaves before the war 
began and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant did not free his until the war 
ended. 

In ]860 there were 40 millions of people in the United States 
— 31 millions being north of ^Mason's and Dixon's line. Nine 
millions only were in the South, and four millions of these were 
our negroes. That left five millions of people including young 
children and old men and women from which our army of 600,- 
000 had to be chosen. The North had an army of nearly 
2,800,000. Gen. Buell, a general on the other side, said, "It 
took a naval fleet and 15,000 men to advance upon 100 Confed- 
erates at Fort Henry. It took 60,000 men to whip 40.000 at 
Shiloh, and it took only 60.000 Confederates to drive back with 
heavy loss 115.000 at Fredericksburg, Va." (Applause). 

Yes. there was a great disparity in numbers, but the make-up 
of our army was the very flower of Southern manhood ; those 
men fought! Never in the annals of history has been recorded 
such devotion to duty and principles as was found in the south- 
ern soldier. 

We were not then a manufacturing people, we were an agri- 

18 



cultural people. This cannot be said about us now. So the home 
supplies soon gave out, and our soldiers did suffer sorely. 

Half-clad, they went through storm and sleet, through shot 
and shell. 

Half-shod, they marched through thorn and thistle and, bare- 
foot, scaled the mountain heights to meet the advancing foe. 

Half-fed, on half rations they went without complaint and 
cheerfully shared their little with others in the devastated 
regions. 

No, you will never find anything like the record of the Con- 
federate soldiers. They surrendered when forced to surrender 
like heroes. Can we blame them when they wept like children? 

They came back to the old South to readjust the old South to 
the new order of things. They do not acknowledge there is a 
new South. Henry Grady was a very young man, when he went 
to Boston and spoke of "the new South." He did not know how 
the people of the old South would feel about that. There is no 
new South. The South of today is the South of yesterday re- 
made to fit the new order of things. And the men of today and 
the women of today are ad justing, themselves to the old south 
remade. 

But the time has come now when the men and women of the 
South can sit down quietly and discuss with the men and women 
of the North the War Between the States, and have no bitter- 
ness in their hearts. We could not have done this a few years 
ago. It only goes to prove how our people are becoming a re- 
united people. Our sons are marrying northern daughters; our 
daTigliters are marrying northern sons; our sons are entering 
the army and navy and standing side by side with tlie boys from 
the North. 

Conventions, as the D. A. R., the Colonial Dames, the Wo- 
man's Federation of Clubs, and religious convocations are bring- 
ing us closer together, so that we are beginning to Imow each 
other and love one the other. 

I think the Spanish-American War did more than any other 
one thing to make us imderstand each other. The soldiers of 
the North camped in the southern states. Two regiments of 
Pennsylvania troops were stationed in our toA\Ti, Athens, Ga. 
They began to understand conditions with us in Georgia, and 
knew better how to sympathize with us in solving those problems 

19 



so perplexing to us in the South. AVe met those soldiers, many 
of the ofificers were invited to our homes, and so we learned to 
know them. 

Then, too, such a speech as President Taft made to us on 
Tuesday night will tend greatly to make us a re-united people. 
(Applause). Ah! how that touched our hearts. "We can never 
forget it. (Applause). We may forget many things that this 
Convention may bring forth, but his words will linger long in 
our memory. Again, words from such men as Corporal Tanner 
will bind us close together — men who are brave enough and true 
enough to their own side, and to their own principles, and yet 
broad enough and true enough to see our side, too. (Applause). 

And, so the day is fast coming, a day of peace. God grant 
that peace may soon reign in all hearts, so that we may be a 
nation known as a God-fearing people ; a people that will stand 
for temperance — that temperance that will not harm our brother 
man ; a people that will stand for purity — that purity that will 
make for pure manhood and womanhood ; a people that will 
stand for honesty — that honesty of conviction and principle that 
will dare to do the right thing and the just thing. jMay we stand 
before all nations as the greatest people on the earth — a people 
that knowing right will dare to do right. 

And when I urge upon you, Daughters of the Confederacy, to 
write the truth of history and to teach it to your children, it is 
with no desire to arouse in your hearts and minds nor in their 
hearts and minds any animosity or bitterness, but that all may 
intelligently comprehend the principles for which our fathers 
fought. Teach your children to resent their being called rebels 
and traitors, and let them know that our fathers fought so 
valiantly in order that they might preserve constitutional liber- 
ty. (Applause). We will never be condemned for being Con- 
federates, but the whole world has a right to condemn us, if we 
are disloyal to truth and to our native land. (Prolonged ap- 
plause). 



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